An OFDM receiver has an autocorrelation circuit configured for generating autocorrelated power values from samples of received short preamble symbols in a received data packet, and a median filter configured for generating a median autocorrelation value from at least a prescribed minimum number of the autocorrelated signal values. A comparator is configured for detecting a symbol boundary, identifying an end of the short preamble symbols, based on the autocorrelated signal values falling below a threshold that is based on the median autocorrelation value. Hence, the threshold used to identify the symbol boundary is dynamically calculated on a per-packet basis, eliminating errors due to varying energy levels or propagation characteristics from different packet sources; moreover, the median autocorrelation value minimizes effects due to noise components, minimizing false detection errors.